I read a lot of communists books, and I’m a big fan of G.R.R Martin novels, so when I write a story, I always thrive to have a very materialist universe. Basically, I want the world I’m making to be believable, so that the characters and nations that live in it feel real. Of course a Fire Emblem game isn’t the place for a macro-economy thesis on the cultivation of turnip in Elibe, but on the contrary a shallow world like the one of Fire Emblem Fates makes the numerous flaw in it’s story even more apparent.
What I also like in G.R.R Martin novels, and it’s linked with a materialist writing, is that the “common folk” aren’t just in the backgrounds while everything rely on the upper class. They are an active forces in the story represented by many groups and characters, and even in a medieval world they can be as much if not more influent than the nobility. For example, in asoiaf, the Riverlands are a parts of Westeros that have been ravaged by wars, be it the Lannister or Northerners armies, from the beginning of the saga. We see the suffering of the common folks, notably the peasants, but also how they slowly fight back against their oppressors. During the novels, we see the grow of a partisan movement leaded by the Brotherhood without Banners, which become more and more a thorn in the side of the Lannister army, and collaborators lords from the Riverland. In the end, the nobility can’t really hold back the Brotherhood because they can’t understand how the common folks could organize against the “natural order” of the feudal society.
Moreover, taking inspirations from History is a good help when writings. For example I like to take inspirations from the Walord Era and Chinese Civil war of the 20th century for my narrative.
I don’t really think Ike has enough depth as a character for me to meaningfully compare him to Howard Roark. FE9 is a story that’s more about its setting than its characters, which is why I’m not a huge fan of it. If both can’t be good for whatever reason, I’m far more likely to invest in a work with good characters and a so-so plot than one with a great plot and uninteresting characters.
But Ike doesn’t really have anything he particularly wants or is passionate about other than a vague notion of being strong like his father.
We don’t really get much insight into Ike through his personal relationships either because he regards everyone around him as pretty much the same. Soren is probably the most important, but it seems largely one sided on Soren’s end, with Ike seemingly regarding him as just another member of his inner circle.
Added this to my list - thanks. I read a lot of Seneca the past few years and read Marcus Aurelius last year, so I’ve started developing more interest in understanding Ancient Rome and the time period in general.
You’re in good company - pretty sure A route in Dream of Five is heavily inspired by Les Miserable, but I wouldn’t quote me on that.
Crime & Punishment was good - read it a long time ago, would probably appreciate it more now. Have had some Nietzsche on my list for a while, but haven’t delved in yet. Will look into Hegel - thanks.
Added to my list - thanks.
Cool insight, thanks for sharing. I tried to follow a similar approach when thinking through how a plot would unfold - if Character is like X or prone to Y, how would they respond to this event? It helped make dialogue flow more naturally and inform what happened from there. I personally was not that into Berserk when I tried reading it, but I can understand why it is so well regarded.
I’m generally not super into sci-fi, but if I ever have the urge to read this I’ll check it out - thanks.
Personally I’ve been interested in reading theological works for a while because their themes are so pervasive in culture and inspire so much that’s followed - East of Eden stands out to me as one of the most notable, but I’d be keen to read the bible to glean some insight into what it inspired.
100% - love reading history. I generally like reading about 1) particular people who navigated difficult times, 2) those who have mixed reputations at home and abroad (Boris Yeltsin, Mao Ze Dong, Pak Chung-Hee), and 3) of places or events that are of interest to me (lots of mid-19th century Native American history and Korean history).
I have Art of War on the way to my apartment - I read a bit of Epicurus’ philosophy last month. I found the more scientific theory less interesting personally (like what they wrote about atoms and the material world), but I found the more life philosophy piece more interesting. (ie their thoughts on pleasure as the absence of pain, etc.)
Do you mean that Lao Zhuang’s philosophy mirrors epicurean philosophy in the west? I can see some similarities between Taoist and Epicurean thought.
Seems neat, will check it out next time I’m in the mood for something like this.
I think it is similar to Confucianism and Taoism (the original philosophy of Lao Zhuang), and the Stoic and Epicurean philosophies in the West.
The former requires rigorous self-discipline and discipline.
The latter teaches that it is best to live freely as a human being.
I think that Taoism as a religion was developed by combining various aspects of Chinese folklore with it.
However, if you look at both as philosophies rather than religions, they are similar to the two major schools of philosophy in the West.
Is happiness something to be grasped through desperate effort, or something to be enjoyed for what it is?
These two ideas are really interesting because they have completely different ideas about happiness.
We are taught to effort hard, but it is really interesting to see how the exact opposite idea has been born together in both parts of the world and has survived over thousands of years.
Sun Tzu’s Art of War is a great tactical book, but if you FE his teachings, the game never begins.
This is because it teaches that it is best to win without fighting.
He solves the problem of how to win without fighting.
He scouts the enemy thoroughly and assesses their strength.
Then, without fighting the enemy, he makes them consider letting the enemy give it up naturally.
Furthermore, he will make the enemy destroy itself and weaken itself.
Thus, if you adapt his strategy to FE, you won’t even start the prologue. lol.
And if you still want to fight, he stresses the importance of short term battles.
Warfare has been a major drain on national power.
It is natural that you can’t do business or farming when bullets are flying around.
For this reason, in his tactics book, he tells us that if we must fight, we should decide the game at once.
Therefore, just when you think that the prologue of the game has started, it quickly becomes the last chapter and the game is over.
if his teachings are directly converted to FE, it will not be a SRPG game.
If we were to make a game out of this, it would be a RPG game where we use spies like Astore to start a civil war in the enemy country.
For example, the game would divide the kingdom of Bern into princely and royal factions and force them to start a civil war.
The game could also divide Estoria between the three generals and the religious forces, and the vizier and the nobility, and have them start a civil war.
When the two forces are exhausted from killing each other, they can intervene militarily to subdue the other, or they can seize the interests of the other by lending money.
That would be more cost-effective than fighting head-on with an army, and less damaging if it failed.
Eltria has resources in the three northern islands, and Bern has a dragon production area.
If the goal is to obtain them, I think this will be enough.
Sun Tzu’s Art of War states that it is best to win without fighting, so it could be an RPG, but I don’t think it will be an SRPG.
If you’re down for reading something a bit controversial then i can recommend Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s books. He was a political prisoner in the Soviet Gulag system for a couple of years and eventually was expelled to West Germany and later the US. His two most well known books are probably “The Gulag Archipelago”, which i have not yet read, but will do after my friend is done with his copy and can lend it to me, and “200 Years together”, which i am reading right now. Its essentially a very indepth history about Judaism in Russia, and Jewish-Russian relations throughout, well, since their contact with each other. The book has a few chapters (100 pages or so) about the history from before 1800, while the other 600 or so are about 1800 and onward. It’s been both heavily criticized and praised by many Jews. His books are of particular interest for me since my family were German farmers in Russia and Ukraine, and also were held in a Gulag for many years.
Both books can easily be found on the Internet Archive in English.
Oh, huh, I never really thought about that. Of course a character with strong ideals specifically relating to the world being the primary influencer of that world makes more sense LOL
I’m generally not super into sci-fi, but if I ever have the urge to read this I’ll check it out - thanks.
There is some very good sci-fi books, and with your recent project, they are especially great to see example of coherent sequels (be it far or not so far from each others). I really recommand Asimov “Foundation serie” in this regard, through the saga you can see how character and stories from past novels are remembered and had influence on the future, and the more the time past and the more those memories become legends
This might seem like a departure from the many important and intellectual books that myself and others have brought up, but I feel confident in saying that my love of storytelling originally came from the Railway Series by Reverend Wilbert Awdry. He has a very to the point and punchy writing style while managing an ensemble cast of characters that each have a distinct personality. And I’m sure that what he created is the first world and characters that I ever grew attached to, though my first exposure to his work was the amazing live action adaptations filmed with models running in real time, which went by the name Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.
Awdry was hugely passionate about the world he created. The setting, the Island of Sodor, was completely mapped and every place on it was given a bit of history. Most of this was contained in a book he wrote, titled: The Island of Sodor: Its People, History, and Railways. This book is very rare and valuable at this point, but most if not all of the information in it has been reproduced on the Thomas Wiki in some capacity. But as the title suggests, it reads like a history text and goes through the long history of Sodor, a small (fictional) island said to be positioned between the Isle of White and the Isle of Man. This includes medieval history of Sodor passing among various warlords as well as the more contemporary history of the island’s rail lines being laid and why they go where they go, as far as which industries they serve and the geological conditions that led to certain routes being chosen. This is all to say that Sodor is probably one of the most fully realized settings in all of fiction.
A few years ago, I read Awdry’s official biography, The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, and it gave a lot of insight into how he wrote. He began mapping the island because his children protested that Thomas had it easy in the story of his race with Bertie the Bus, and so he set to mapping the length of the race in order to prove to his children that each had gone the same distance and faced the same number of obstacles. And nearly every incident he wrote had been inspired by a real-life railway incident. And that’s probably why his stories have such a grounded realism in spite of the animated vehicles.
These days, you really have to seek it out to even know any of this about The Railway Series/Thomas & Friends because the corporate rights holders have changed it into something vastly different from Awdry’s vision over the last two decades, but Awdry has always been a huge inspiration to me.
And since I should probably say something about Fire Emblem, I’ll mention that when I first saw Sigrid in VQ, my first thought was of Sigrid of Arlesdale, a Sudrian folk hero who fought of a Norman invasion in 1094 and has small gauge engine named after her. And in Saint’s Blood, I named a pair of twins after Thomas’s coaches, Annie and Clarabel.
One of my favorites has to be The Alchemist. It’s a really short book, only a couple hundred pages at most, but it’s the first book on self discovery that I actually connected to. It’s got a few moments that I still think about sometimes, because of how cool or mystical they are. The oddest part though, is that the book doesn’t use proper noun names at all. That writing fascinated me, even though I’d neve use it myself. It’s such a short and cool book that I’d recommend to literally everyone.
Gantz manga just really reminds me of fire emblem. Random people forced into some mission to do or kill something in order to survive. The manga is also cool though it may have some fanservice stuff but that’s just minor things. The biggest strength of the manga are the story arcs. Tons of amazing and enjoyable arcs just makes me want to reread them everytime. My favs are buddha mission arc which is top tier, osaka mission arc was overhyped mess and pretty much meh, extremely actiony with mediocre story but the tougher bosses saves it, the first arc has some decent writing too. Everything in that manga is just so over hyped that keeps getting better and better. The hype just never stops when it goes for a new arc. New enemies, new conflict, new players, new chaos It’s just pure fucking awesomeness. It’s a good balance between good story and good entertainment. Definitely recommend if someone’s actually bored or trying to find something weird and unique or people just want to read some “so bad so good” series.
Back when I had more time to read books, I really enjoyed the Foundation trilogy by Asimov, right up until it started to leave behind some of its more interesting quirks to instead follow the antics of a funny clown man in space. The way it told a compelling narrative without the use of long term character arcs or any clear overarching protagonists or antagonists was interesting to me as somebody that really likes character writing, and it helped me understand the craft of it better.
I also used to read historical fiction, but I fell off it once I realized the author I was enjoying the most also had very formulaic writing, with more or less the same cast of characters appearing in different configurations in each novel regardless of time period.
Recently I’ve been planning on getting into Dune, as most of my friends are reading it atm, but it so rarely feels like I can get into the headspace for reading these days. Hopefully I can figure out a way to fit it into my schedule again.
Interesting perspective - I generally find the two approaches to be complementary in nature.
Stoic/Confucian philosophers focus heavily on self-discipline and your role within the wider world and how you act in it, whilst the Taoist/Epicurean highlight the wider world’s role and how we are a small, insignificant part of it. It’s as though the self is a proactive or reactive player in the events of the world, and I find each viewpoint to have merit - I think what you state about happiness is relevant in both and it is interesting how these philosophies mirror each other and have managed to survive for so long.
I read Enchiridion yesterday by Epictetus (it is a quick read) and it focuses a lot on our own conduct. My copy of Art of War arrived yesterday too which I’m keen to read.
Also currently reading Chief Joseph and the Fight of the Nez Perce, which I think has elements of a story that would translate well to a Fire Emblem hack, especially due to the smaller scale of the conflict.